Draft Master Plan: Sterling homes to move west, industry east

Final workshop for master plan moved back a month

Slide from McCool Development Solutions presentation to Sterling Planning Commission comparing three draft city master plans on the efficiency of the mapped growth areas. (Courtesy photo)

STERLING -- After months of data collection for Sterling's master plan, the preliminary results have come in: the city's future homes and business growth should move west, while the city's industry should develop east of the railroad tracks.

The Sterling Planning Commission heard a report from McCool Development Solutions Wednesday night outlining three plans for city expansion for its master plan update.

The results came in part from a workshop in December in which 25 community members created four future land use plans.

They placed an additional 2,800 households and corresponding businesses (based on 2 percent annual population growth) where they thought they fit best.

Based on that data, plus information ranging from previous workshops and mail-in responses to geography, were put through a program that crunched that data to create the best overall plans for growth through 2030.

"This is really broad-brushed," said Carrie McCool, of McCool Development, during the meeting. "We're really kind of bubbly still and trying to get input from you guys on if these three (plans) are the three we need to look at."

The plans

The plan with the best match, Alternative A, put future residential growth northwest and southwest of city limits and business growth west on W. Main Street, near the Sterling Walmart.

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The second plan, Alternative B, put residential growth farther west along Highway 14 past Sterling Municipal Airport, where future business growth would locate as well.

Both options requested residential redevelopment throughout the city, downtown revitalization and energy and industrial growth between the railroad and Interstate 76, along Highway 6.

They also planned for future oil and gas company growth, which participants said was coming in north and west of Sterling.

From the McCool Development Solutions presentation to the Sterling Planning Commission on three draft master plan options

Alternative C showed a "business as usual" approach, showed residential growth directly north and south of the city.

According to McCool and the workshop results, the first two plans showed a radical shift in the types of homes the city would have in 2030.

Sterling's property makeup would go from the 55 percent estate homes it has now to 50 percent suburban residences, showing support for higher density living.

Either Alternative A or B would also have the benefits of staying off much of the mapped flood plain and prime agriculture land, whereas Alterative C had substantially more construction on both.

"The 'business as usual' is helpful because it shows how unwise ... unplanned growth is," said Roger Hosea, planning commission chairman. "I'm saying this is why we need a map, because if we don't we end up using much more land, more agricultural land, less efficiently."

But he and the council proposed a third option of blending the first two alternatives: confining the housing and business corridor of Alternative B so it doesn't branch as far west, while reducing the housing north of A.

Commission members said the land northwest of town, where Alternative A would place new residential growth, would cause issues because of groundwater in the area.

One of the issues responders said was most important to new development, according to a survey conducted at the December workshop, was construction away from the flood plain.

But commission member Clarence Gaertner - along with other members - agreed that flood plain issues were infrequent.

The groundwater issues, on the other hand, had "water bubbling up from the ground," in some places, he said.

McCool said the group would create a new alternative.

The final workshop

The commission members also agreed to have McCool Development push back the final community workshop a month to get better attendance.

McCool said they plan on sending out notices for the meeting with the city's utility bills, like they did with the community survey, since that was so successful; 700 of the 7,000 surveys they sent were returned.

"We have the data analyzed. We have these draft alternatives. All we have to make up is one more graph: the morph of 'A' and 'B,'" McCool said. "This third meeting is the most important because it's the one where we ask, 'How do you feel about these land use alternatives,' and is it representative of their values. It's creating that buy-in and that ownership."

Commissioners assured her the group didn't have any problems extending the deadline for the last workshop, which was originally set for Jan. 31.

And the extra time wouldn't add anything to the expenses, McCool said.

"Personally I think it's been 20 years in the making," Hosea said. "I wouldn't be upset if we moved this meeting."

The planning commission will meet one more time with McCool Development on Feb. 6 and will consider dates for the last workshop.

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